Belkin WeMo vs. Hue by Philips — What’s the Difference?

One of the best ways to start with smart home automation is by setting up smart lighting. You can find a great range of smart lighting solutions on the market from Lutron, WeMo, Philips, GE Link, LIFX, etc. Some of them are more popular and thus are more expensive than others. In this comparison, we’ll take a look at the differences between WeMo vs. Hue by Philips to determine the better smart lighting solution of the two.

Both WeMo and Philips Hue require bridges to work. So, if you’re just starting out with smart home lighting, it’s better to get either the WeMo Starter Kit or the Philips Hue Starter Kit. The starter kits usually come with a bridge, so you can set everything up in minutes. Just know that neither the WeMo Light Bulbs nor Philips Hue Bulbs will work without a bridge.

Now, it makes sense lights need their corresponding bridge. However, for those that were hoping to connect the WeMo or Philips light bulbs straight to their hub, unfortunately that’s not an option. WeMo and Philips Hue light bulbs need a bridge to communicate with a hub. If you’re just starting with smart home automation, this might not seem like a big deal. But once you have a few smart devices, now you’re talking about a few bridges/gateways and a hub. Anyway, what we’re saying is that connectivity can start to get a bit annoying.

We all dream about automated homes, completely connected and data-driven, the kind of homes where you’d need just one hub and app to control all of your smart home devices. But until the bigger companies all agree on partnership and universal technology use, we (the homeowners) are stuck looking for ways to connect the devices ourselves. So, whether you choose WeMo or Hue, make sure you get the corresponding bridge.

Belkin WeMo vs. Hue by Philips — Differences:

Difference #1: Set up – We’ve been using WeMo Light Switches (can’t say anything bad about them) for over a year, so we were pretty excited getting the WeMo Light Bulb Starter Kit. The installation was simple, but took a little more time than we expected. The first thing you need to do is plug in the WeMo bridge and connect it to your WiFi network. After that, just follow the steps in the WeMo app to pair the bulbs. Our setup didn’t go as smoothly as we expected, but from the second try everything was ready.

Philips Hue was easier to install. And because you connect it straight to your router via an Ethernet Cable, it automatically connects to your WiFi network. We set it up from the first try and it worked like a charm. The difference between these two isn’t that radical.

Difference #2: Connectivity – As we’ve mentioned above, Philips Hue uses an Ethernet cable to connect to your router. This connection provides stable and solid use with no flaws. Whereas WeMo connects to your WiFi network remotely, which, from time to time, might bring some interference and disrupted performance. This might explain why so many people who have reviewed WeMo discuss losing connection with their WeMo light bulbs, or have to go through the process of pairing them over and over.

As we said, Phillips also allows you to add color to your smart home lighting. And this is where fun begins. With colorful lighting you can set up scenes, make the lights pulsate to your favorite music beat, and even set it up to blink certain colors whenever your favorite team scores. It’s pretty amazing.

Difference #6: Price – As of now, the WeMo starter kit (2 white light bulbs and a bridge) is on a sale on the official WeMo website for $50. For the same starter kit from Philips (2 white light bulbs and a bridge), you pay almost the same. It looks like the choice is obvious.

Belkin WeMo vs. Hue by Philips — The Bottom Line

The choice between the Belkin WeMo vs. Hue isn’t really too hard: we’d go with Philips Hue. There might be a new, upgraded WeMo light bulb version coming soon, but the existing one doesn’t really stand a chance against Philips Hue.

And Philips Hue is not the only option on the market: Lightify Color Light Bulbs in a bundle with a Wink or SmartThings hub is a great way to start with smart home lighting and sets up your home for further integration of other smart appliances. You should check out our article on Lightify vs. Philips Hue to find your perfect smart lighting solution.

Our Score:

Belkin WeMo

Philips Hue

4

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If you had to choose between Belkin WeMo vs. Hue by Philips, what would you choose and why?

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